A custom or bespoke survey is a questionnaire sent to employers that gathers data on jobs. Data points like base salary, short-term and long-term incentives are provided by employers and then a third party like Prosper Consulting summarizes the results.
Typically, there is a need for this to be done because data does not currently exist for this niche of employers (industry) and/or jobs in other salary survey products.
I have developed this type of survey for geo-statisticians in the mining industry. And I have also seen this done for a set of industry specific employers within a certain geographic area. For example, nonprofits in a specific U.S. state or metro area.
To entice employers to participate, I recommend that they receive a high-level summary of the results for free. If they want a more detailed report, then they can pay a fee that helps to offset the overall cost of the survey development, distribution, data analysis, and summarization of results.
One of my team members said the last time they had done this was via a typewriter. Because of the manual effort involved (can you say paper!) they only asked for the base salary range min-mid-max and average base pay. No bonus, benefits, or other incentive questions were in the questionnaire. Some of the companies faxed their responses back instead of sending them through the U.S. mail.
One thing that isn't always obvious when comparing proposals for compensation projects and things like custom salary surveys is who is actually going to do the work. In larger consulting firms like Willis Towers Watson, Mercer, etc., they often assign compensation work like this to junior analysts fresh out of college or with just a year or two of experience.
On my team, you get 20 plus year veterans who have worked with a variety of companies (private, public, small to large). They have insights given their cross-industry experience and global understanding of how compensation and rewards vary across the globe from country to country. Plus, you aren't one of many projects when you choose Prosper Consulting. You are one of a few and our attention to detail and quality sets us apart.
So, if you have gaps in your salary survey data and need a custom survey or if you just need a basic pay grade structure and compensation benchmarking study done, think about us. We’re a small but mighty group that bring passion and a ridiculous number of years of experience to the table.
Plus, most of us live in “Compensation is My Life Land,” so we’re fun to chat with about the pay related things you can’t share with anyone else.
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